Twice Befell
by Scarabbug
Summary: The Justice Lords have always existed. The secret Ace tells Clark proves the fact. [Oneshot, very brief. Set post “Destroyer” – spoilers for much of the last five seasons.]


**The Justice Lords have always existed. The secret Ace tells Clark proves the fact. Oneshot, very brief. Set post "Destroyer" – spoilers for much of the last five seasons. Standard disclaimers apply. Title taken from the poem by Emily Dickenson: _"_****_As these that twice befell. Parting is all we know of heaven, and all we need of hell."_ **

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Twice Befell. 

'You're not _our_ Superman, are you?' she asked, and Clark Kent knew he _could_ lie to her, but it probably wouldn't do him any good. If she didn't take the lie at face value, she could probe into his head, find out for sure, and then make him pay for deceiving her.

He didn't think she'd actually hurt him (mortally), but…

Still. He had no good reason to lie.

'No, I'm not.'

Ace had reshaped the hotel block into her playground. It took him hours to get up to her, through the thorns and corridors and mazes. He knew, really, that the only reason he got here at all was because she was bored, and… curious. 'You shouldn't be here, he wouldn't like that. Then again He hasn't been around for a long time. None of them have…' 'You're not here to replace him, are you?'

'No.' Clark said quickly, and tried hard not to baulk at the concept.

'And you didn't come here to stop me, either,' she sounded… surprised. Perhaps she was. He'd thought earlier that nothing surprised her. She knew everything she needed to know, because she ripped the knowledge from people's heads as soon as they looked at her. Ace could move things with her mind, and build playgrounds and gardens and blood sucking vampire bats out of her thoughts.

It would be too dangerous to lie to Ace. Especially here, in this world, where she exerted so much power.

_It's the organization in this place that's helping her_, the voice in Clark's brain which Clark liked to call "Batman" said to him. _The order and structure of this world. The new Apokalipse is all about order. She's still a child; she thrives in environments when she knows exactly what to expect_.

Clark politely told the Batman voice to shut up.

This universe's Ace was more powerful than theirs. Just barely. 'Youe not going to try and take me away.'

'No,' Clark said, and silently added: _Why should I? What harm are you causing? _

Ace petted a cheetah's head absently, it purred, rubbing against her like a newborn kitten. 'I know what happened in your world a while ago… Your Lex Luthor went into the middle of the universe and found something important… then he disappeared. For a while, I couldn't even _find_ him. I don't think anybody could.' She looked at Clark firmly. 'Did he come back?'

'…Yes,' Clark answers.

'Ours didn't.'

'Yours was already _dead_,' Clark pointed out, and his hands tightened into fists as he spoke.

'I know. You killed him… well, the _Other_ You did. And then the world ended when Darkseid came. There weren't any Justice Lords to stop him… and there wasn't a Lex Luthor either. That was bad in the end… it's kinda funny,' her thin lips twitched into a smile. 'When you think about it.'

He wanted to say stop it: no more. He couldn't. There was too much truth in her words to ignore, as if Ace was implanting them straight into his mind where he couldn't question them or try to deny them.

She _wanted_ him to believe her, so she _made_ him.

She pushed off and the swing carried her high immediately. Her nose doesn't quite touch the blue-cloud-painted ceiling she created. 'You should go back to your own world, now.'

'Not yet,' Clark says, _Tell me. Tell me what you know. You know it all, you were always _there_. Tell me. _

One of Ace's tigers rustled in the long, dark grass behind her but Clark couldn't see it. Its rumbling chest sounded like laughter, which would have been amusing, if it weren't so disturbing. 'Your… your Luthor knew what really happened before he died, didn't he, Ace?'

'You mean what happened to the Justice Lord' Flash.' It's not a question. With Ace, it never is. She stops swinging, dust billows around her feet. The cheetah stalks away into the bushes surrounding the bed.

'I… yes.'

'That was sad. He wouldn't have been like them, I don't think…'

'No, he wouldn't,' Clark said firmly and… it was the first thing he'd been sure about all day.

Ace nodded, her mind still off in another place but her eyes were fixed very firmly upon Clark's. 'Luthor knew. He _thought_ he did, anyway. Maybe he was guessing, but I think he was probably right. And it was in his head, all this time. He knew it…' she frowned. 'It doesn't make much sense to me… why didn't he tell you?'

_ i Why didn't you read his mind and find out? You were in Cadmus at the time. You could've done it. You could've found out everything, Ace… /i _, Clark thought, but didn't (have to) say aloud. 'They didn't let me hear everything. I tried but he always knew I was in there,' she shudders slightly and Clark can almost imagine her fear. His stomach is churning, the same way it did when Pa fell off the ladder, and when time the cloned-Superman-monster-_thing_ turned into Lex Luthor. The churn is something solid and undeniable. His body registering the truth before it could hit his mind.

'Batman knew too. Both of him.' Ace said out of nowhere and… Clark didn't feel as surprised as he honestly believed he should have. '…It's important, because knowing would have broken you like it did the other you… so he didn't tell you. He _wouldn't_ tell you. I think he tried to forget _he_ knew. That's strange but… I think he could do that, if he really wanted to. Luthor knew things didn't _really_ start with him, you see… maybe that's why, I'm not sure. It doesn't matter anyway… except to you.'

She looked at him and her smile is strange and dry and very much not like the Ace he met in his world Las Vegas. Her eyes still hold him as they did then, though. Pinpricks piercing and refusing to let go.

Except now they were doing something they hadn't back then. Now they were _pleading_ and… Clark couldn't quite tell what they were pleading for. Something… something _massive_, like a change in the universe or an unbroken toy from the remains of what used to be the Justice Lords' Earth and is now a new Apokalipse. Something he couldn't give her.

Superman swallowed and couldn't speak.

'It really _does_ scare you, doesn't it?' Ace frowned at him. Her swing became a park bench surrounded by deep, dark, moving gravel and she tapped the seat besides her. Clark sat down without protest and knew it wasn't all just Ace getting into his head and making him do it.

'…Everything changed when Luthor killed the Flash,' he says, slowly and carefully. 'The Lords… they changed.'

Ace's tiger laughed again, but it sounded like a roar this time. Loud and angry, telling him how wrong he was. 'Yes, they _did_ change because of him, but not just because he died.'

'What do you mean?' Clark asked. He already knew the answer.

'Because, Superman, _Luthor_ didn't kill our Flash.'

Clark said nothing. In his head, Pa was falling from the second story ladder all over again and Clone-Superman-Luthor's insides were sizzling on the concrete pavement.

Ace kicked her feet in the air.

'I know you didn't come back here just to help me,' Ace said. 'And you never expected to find this. But that's alright. You'll help me anyway, won't you, Superman? Because you're like the Other You.'

'No,' Superman whispers. No, he's not. He's not like the Other Superman at all.

'I meant in the _good_ ways,' Ace said, calmly. 'The Other You wouldn't have sat and talked to me as long as this, and _your_ Flash is still alive, Superman.'

Yes, he was.

Clark felt a little calmer, hearing that.

Not much, but a little. It was better than nothing, as he suspected that anything was, in this world.

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End file.
